Irradiation Growth of Zirconium Alloys

Experimental investigation of irradiation growth on annealed Zircaloy-4 and 20% to 50% cold-worked Zr-2.5wt%Nb specimens with stress relief has been carried out. The specimens are irradiated in a heavy water reactor at 610 K to 4.2 x 1024 n/m2 (E > 1.0 MeV). The growth strains increase linearly with fluence. The saturation of growth is not observed for all specimens. The difference of growth behavior between two kinds of Zircaloy-4 tube may be associated with the content of minor alloying elements and impurities that influence the microstructure evolution under irradiation.

The difference of growth strains of cold-worked Zr-2.5wt%Nb at different temperature of stress relief is related to the grain size and shape and the degree of cold work.